Coming up to eight years ago I found out I was pregnant with my fifth child. I had a life! All my kids were at school, I had a job I enjoyed, I was doing post-grad study.

Some wonderful things happened in the next few months. I lost count of the women I met who were either the older sister of "an unlooked for treasure" or had one of their own. Without exception they talked about the special joy that child had brought to their family.

With Jonathan now turned seven, my life increasingly becomes my own again but the special joys and challenges of sharing our life with him dont go away. For quite a while I've been thinking of how I could share the knowledge I've gained along the journey as in our age of re-mixed families and later child birth big gaps between children seem more common.

And there are still things I worry about that I'd like to hear other's experience of.

Sonja